Ford, apple pie, putting ice in drinks and the brutish hazing culture of boys clubs are just some cultural cornerstones of the American identity. Northwestern University’s football program caught the eyes of the national press this past week after a report of a former player came out about hazing incidents during their time at the school. The player — who is staying anonymous — approached the university’s president about the issue last November. However, the scandal is just now gaining traction in the national media after the former player spoke to the press revealing the details.
Northwestern University was made aware of the situation and conducted a private investigation, bringing in a law firm to investigate the issue. Upon the investigation’s conclusion, the university decided to suspend their long-time Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald, and many considered the suspension a slap on the wrist even before the full details of the situation were made available. Fitzgerald, who has been a mainstay in the Northwestern community, played linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid-1990s and won the Bronko Nagurski trophy as well as the Chuck Bednarik Award in 1995 and 1996. After brief stints at Maryland, Colorado and Idaho, Fitzgerald joined Northwestern’s coaching staff in 2001 as a defensive backs coach. Fitzgerald eventually earned the head coaching job in 2006 and would keep the position until his firing on July 10th.
According to an article from the university’s student-run newspaper “The Daily Northwestern,” the player alleged that Fitzgerald was aware of the hazing going on within the program. One of the activities was called “running,” where eight to ten upperclassmen put on ski masks and dry humped a teammate for mistakes done at practice. Freshman players were the main target for “running.” Other “team bonding” traditions included “The Carwash,” “Naked Center-Quarterback exchange” or “Gatorade Shake.” The Daily Northwestern article provides grim details of what is entailed in those traditions previously mentioned.
Who knows what more would have happened if that former player did not go to the media and share his story? Fitzgerald is an alleged crook who deserves what will come to him after his so-called leadership as the head coach of the Wildcats. He was not a leader of men, but a facilitator of demonizing sexual hazing who painted it as team comradery. Fitzgerald claimed he had no knowledge of any hazing going on within the program. When the fire is at your doorstep, you cannot try to cool it by playing the oblivious card.
But all the blame cannot go solely on Fitzgerald. The university’s spineless leadership failed its student-athletes by letting nepotism cloud their judgment. Before The Daily Northwestern’s article, officials only gave Fitzgerald a suspension of two weeks in the summer. However, they fired him after the public became aware of the situation. University officials were only looking out for themselves, and when the backlash became too much to handle, they finally made the right decision after the fact.
The situation and everything surrounding it is ugly. But this is just one story that was able to find its way outside the walls of the program. In locker rooms across the country, from college to middle school, there are stories that will go unheard because of fear, shame or retaliation. Fraternities get busted for despicable hazing every single year, and universities are often swift in punishing those activities. The ball game changes, though, when a university’s money maker such as their division-1 college football program gets into the thick of controversy, where they tend to be more lenient with their assessment of punishment.
As Warren Buffet once said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” this saying can be applied to Northwestern University’s leadership and athletic program. The handling of the situation by officials will continue to raise the question, if the officials did not care about their student-athletes who contribute to the university, why would they care about regular students? Whoever is named the head coach after Fitzgerald will have a tall task in the future when it comes to recruiting players to the program. These types of scandals tend to linger around longer even after the people who were involved are gone.
